Virtual Hide and Seek
Pick a place inside your house to hide, and imagine you are there. You can be any size, so you
can hide in the silverware drawer, inside the toilet, in the dryer, wherever you can imagine! The
others ask yes/no questions only, ie "are you in the kitchen" until they narrow it down to the room,
area and then....find you! Kids love this game because it's so fun to hide in places you'd not
really fit into. You may have to clarify no hiding between walls and in plumbing!
LICENSE PLATE PHRASE GAME
 Spot a license plate and call out the letters on it. Then everyone tries to come up with a
different phrase using the letters in the order they appear on the license plate as the first
letter of each word. For instance KEW could be "kittens eating watermelon" or "kiss
every warthog." When you can't think of any more look for another license plate.
Counting Cows
One of my favorites. Count the cows you see on your side of the car. If you pass a field full of lots
of cows, you'd better count fast! If you pass a cemetery on your side of the car, you lose all your
cows, but only if the opposing team calls "your cows are buried!". This game gets interesting
when distraction tactics are used to either cause your opponent to miss cows on their side of the
road or to miss a cemetery on your side of the road. A white horse can count as a bonus. The
team with the most cows wins.
Count Other Stuff
Count blue vans, or count red cars, find 10 horses, count signs, billboards, police cars. Count
water towers. How many people pass you on the highway? -- count them too!
The Alphabet Game
Start with the letter "A" and find one on a sign, truck, building or license plate, say the word and
then move on to the next letter. You can do this as a competition or together as a family for the
younger beginning readers. The first one to get to the letter "Z" is the winner!
Another version of this game:
Someone picks a theme (foods, animals, places, girl names, boy names, bands, songs etc) and
you pick an item that corresponds with each letter of the alphabet. You can do this several ways...
We usually go Person 1: A, Person 2: B, Person 3: C, etc,. But you can do it where each person
does A and then each person does B. If you want to get competitive about it, you can do one
letter until someone can't think of an item, and that person loses that round!
Rest Stop Athletics
Keep a frisbee or jump rope in the back of your van, along with a picnic blanket so when you stop
at a rest area, everyone can run and be free and stretch their legs.
Aluminum Foil Art
Give everyone a sheet of aluminum foil. Have them mold it into anything they
want: animal shapes, Frisbees, balls, jewelry, crowns, headband, necklaces and
masks. Be creative. Also a great activity for toddlers. For more ideas read this
article I wrote about fun with aluminum foil!
Let your children have a map
Give your kids an opportunity to have their own copy of a map of where you are going. Show
them how far you have come, how much further there is to go and let them mark it with a
crayon. Every time they ask "How much further?” have them take out their map and see for
themselves. You might also like to get a compass and show them how it works along with the
map. You can buy kid's travel maps and travel guides , or for more fun, you can also print
driving directions from any mapping website such as mapquest. You can also try a Kids Road
Atlas if you are going to be traveling across several states!
Also kids who are old enough to read can help you navigate with Travmatix.com. You can use
this site to print driving directions along with a list of all the food, fuel and hotel options at every
exit along your route. When they start getting hungry or need a break, have them check the list of
what is available at upcoming exits!
FELT ANIMALS and board – then tell stories with the animals
Rock-Paper-Scissors
The classic game. Players each have one palm face up and lay their fist on it. As they count to three, they
pound their fist into their hand. On "three", they turn the fist into the object of their choice. There are three
to choose from: rock (a closed fist), paper (an open palm), or scissors (two fingers in a sideways V
shape). A rock wins by crushing scissors, paper wins by covering the rock, and scissors win by cutting
paper. If they both come up with the same shape, they go again.
To add variety and interest to the standard version of this game, try a new version that was
invented in 1995. It's called Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. Once you try this
version, you may never go back to the old one!
I Spy
Look around and pick an object you can see either in the car or along the road. Then give others a clue
such as, "I spy with my little eye... something green.", or "I spy with my little eye .. something brown and
furry" Continue to give more clues until they can guess what it is.
Twenty Questions
Think of an object, it can be anything as long as it is general. The first question the players will ask is: "Is
it classified as Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral", or you can do "Person, Place or Thing". The players can
then ask anything they want about the object as long as you are able to answer "yes" or "no" to their
question. They try to ask questions that will help them narrow down their ideas until they are able to
guess the object. If they can do it in less than 20 questions, they win!
"Guess how far away that is"
Pick an object and have everyone guess how far away it is, then clock it on your odometer. Take turns
picking the object or let the winner pick.
That's My Car!
Take turns and see who can end up with the sweetest ride. Choose one of the next 5 vehicles that you
pass (or that pass you) to be "your car" as if it were your very own. All players mutually decide if you are a
"winner" or a "loser" based on how nice a car you "own" compared to the other players current cars.
Play Favorites
This one is a good conversation starter. Go around the car and ask each person their favorite color. Then
have everyone think of different "favorite" questions for the group. What's your favorite... movie, flavor of
ice cream, song, game, toy, place to visit, restaurant, book, animal, fish, etc. Be creative and don't forget
to ask the driver too!
Fortunately-Unfortunately
This game helps teach kids to look at the bright side of things in a silly way. For example, you
say, "Unfortunately, there's a tiger in the car." Your son says, "Fortunately, he doesn't eat
boys." Your daughter says, "Unfortunately, he's looking at me and licking his lips." You say,
"Fortunately, I brought along my tiger-jaw-clamper." And so on, alternating between fortunate
and unfortunate things. An added bonus - it's a real hoot to hear a 2-year-old use the word
"unfortunately"!
Treasure Bottle
Prepare this one ahead of time. Use a large soda bottle or a large clean peanut
butter jar. Fill it no more than 2/3 full with uncooked rice or birdseed. Then put in
about 20-25 small objects (safety pin, plastic bugs, button, M&M, nut, bolt, paper
clip, penny, bead, piece of macaroni, tiny lego, and other misc. toy pieces or stuff
that is probably rolling around in your kitchen junk drawer.) Keep a count of the
items and write down the number of items on the outside of the bottle. Put the lid on tight. Let
the kids take turns rolling the bottle around in their hands until they find them all. Kids of all ages
love this game. You can make more than one treasure bottle so kids don't have to take turns put different items in different bottles.
Who Am I?
Think of someone you know, friend or relative. Give a few hints like "She has blonde hair and
glasses". Let everyone go around one time with their guess. If no one guesses add another hint
like "she laughs funny."
Find 100
Choose a color or an object and then count them until you find 100 of that item. Popular Find 100
items are American flags, statues, rivers, water falls, churches, red cars, etc. A competitive
variation has each person choose a different item or color of car that passes you, and have a
race to 100.